Air Power on the Eastern Front.

>>3112339

Because Germany had to transfer their fighter squadrons west to defend against the bombers. Luftwaffe losses in the West were completely unsustainable, losing some 1000 fighters every month in the Western front alone in 1943, compared to ~200 per month on the eastern front in 1942.

This seriously degraded the quality of luftwaffe pilots, both through attrition and rushed training to replace losses. The fighter squadrons on the eastern front would be choked for both new pilots and new airframes, ceding air supeority to the Soviets.

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>>3112339
Most of Germany's airforce was in the West IIRC and later Russian variants were comparable, if not superior to some German aircraft by 1944.
Take this with a grain of salt but I think it had something to do with German pilots going "Fly until you die" order so they lost a lot of experienced pilots and some were redeployed to the West. (this anon explains it better >>3112390)
Also most combat in the Eastern Front took place in lower altitudes (since Russians had a hard-on for sorties and CAS with their Sturmoviks and whatnot) where Soviet Yak-3s and La-7s excelled in, which is why German pilots were recommended to drag Soviet planes into higher altitudes where they'd perform better.

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>>3112407
>>3112390
Interesting. How much of an effect would this have had on the ground?

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>>3112424
Depends who has the air superiority?
Soviet Union? It was fucking hell on earth for Germans. Soviet ground attackers would attack day and night non-stop, to give Germans as little rest as possible, here's a few citations from Germans:

>‘It came to the fact that the anti-aircraft batteries hesitated to open fire in order not to be immediately overwhelmed by the air raids’.
>Harassing night raids of Soviet bombers rendered substantial psychological impact on the German troops;

>General Schwabedissen was forced to emphasize: ‘The aggressiveness of the Soviet fighter pilots also deserves special mention. The composure with which they executed the attacks was simply amazing’.

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>>3112443
And one more
>Russians were in the air from morning till evening on the field of battle. Well-armored fighter planes of the Russians attacked mainly in low-flying raids, and in this the fighter pilots showed great courage and bravery. Night bombers acted alone as a rule, evidently chiefly trying to prevent a night’s rest for our troops. The organization of the interaction between the aviation and ground troops continually improved; at the same time, the qualitative superiority of German aviation gradually faded.